The Savannah tribune. [volume] (Savannah [Ga.]) 1876-1960, 1887-08-27
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.


Experiments have recently been made
in Egypt, on the line Of railroad between
Cairo and Alexandria, ia using petrole-
um as fuel for firing locomotives, it is
claimed with success.
The 30 tree of Amarapoora, in Bur
nah, is about 2, ITO years old, and it can
be traced in historic documents as far
back as 1872 A. d. Other trees are believed
] to be older. African and Californian
specimens being computed at 5, 900 years,
but there is no certain evidence of it.
Two skeletons dug up several months
ago In cave near Orneau, In Belgium,
appear to belong to the oldest race of
which any records exist These prehis-
toric individuals were contemporary with
the mammoth, and inhabited the coun-
try before the great ice age They were
short and thick set, with broad Shout
ders, supporting long and narrow head,
with an extremely low forehead.
Professor Bolton expresses the opinion
that the browning glory of modern chem
istry is the power of producing, in the
laboratory, from inorganic matter, sub
stances identical with those existing in
the vegetable and animal kingdoms-it
being known now that the same chemical
laws rule animate and inanimate nature,
and that any definite compound pro-
duced in the former can be prepared by
synthesis as soon as its chemical consti-
tuition has been made out.
The international Institute of Stats
tics has just had convention in Rome,
and one of the most interesting points it
established is the fact that the death rate
in Europe has been very much reduced
during the past century. People are liv-
ing longer and are more healthy than
they were one hundred years ago, and
this happy result is attributed to the
progress of medical science, and espe-
cially to the energetic sanitary measures
that have been adopted everywhere.
Cultivated in groves, the average
growth in twelve years Of several varie-
ties of hard wood has been ascertained to
be about as follows: White maple reaches
/ foot in diameter and 80 feet in height;
ash, leaf maple or box elder, foot in
diameter and 90 feet in height; white
willow, IS inches and 40 feet; yellow
willow, IS inches and 80 feet; Lombardy,
poplar, 10 inches and 40 feet; blue and
white ash, 10 inches and % feet; black
walnut and butternut, 10 inches and 20
feet.
The particular office of flies appears to
be the consumption of those dead and
minute animals whose decaying myriads
would otherwise poison the air. 1t was
remark of Linn9us that three flies
could consume a dead horse sooner than
lion could He doubtless included the
families of three flies. A single fly, the
naturalist tell us, will sometimes pro-
duce 20, 600 Larvae, each of which, in a
few days, may be the parent of another
10000, and thus the descendants of three
flies will soon devour an animal much
larger than horse.
During the last twenty years various
attempts have been made to produce
paper barrel that would answer all the
purposes for which the wooden barrel is
used. Recently barrel has been pro-
! duced from paper pulp, its general APP
pearance being that of the common
wooden barrel thickly vanished, while
only five pieces are used in making
it. 1t is bound with ordinary wooden
hoops, and the head is of one piece,
so constructed that it fits into the
barrel airrtight, and it is held firmly
in place by hoop without the
use of nails. The body is seamless, and
the interior and exterior are glazed with
a substance which renders the barrel i'm
previous to moisture, so that liquids can
be transported in it without loss